NEWPORT NEWS, Va. – Saint Joseph's women’s lacrosse senior captain Kristen Kelbon has been selected as a recipient of the 2018 Atlantic 10 Postgraduate Scholarship, the Atlantic 10 Conference announced on Thursday. The prestigious honor is given to a graduating student-athlete from each of the league’s 14 members. To be considered for the Postgraduate Scholarship, student-athletes must have performed with distinction both in the classroom and in their respective sports throughout their career, while demonstrating exemplary conduct in the community.

A team captain and two-year defensive stalwart for the Saint Joseph’s women’s lacrosse squad, Kelbon anchored SJU to a pair of A-10 postseason appearances over the last two years and capped a phenomenal career with 78 ground balls and 50 caused turnovers in 57 games played with 46 starts; her 50 caused turnovers tie for 10th all-time in career caused turnovers at SJU. As a junior, Kelbon went for 36 ground balls and 21 caused turnovers en route to 2017 A-10 All-Conference First Team defensive honors and followed up with a single-season, career-high 37 ground balls and a single-season, career-high 23 caused turnovers as a senior this spring.

Kelbon was selected onto the 2018 A-10 Academic All-Conference Team and earned Philadelphia Inquirer Academic All-Area Team recognition in 2017. She was also the Saint Joseph’s women’s lacrosse squad’s selection for the 2017 Scholar-Athlete Award and 2016 Academic Award.

Kelbon made both the A-10 Commissioner’s Honor Roll and SJU Athletic Director’s Honor Roll every semester of her academic career on Hawk Hill. The Mount Laurel, New Jersey native and Bishop Eustace Prep product graduated from Saint Joseph’s University this past weekend with degrees in both finance and accounting and will attend law school this fall.

All 14 honorees will receive $5,000 to contribute towards full-time enrollment in a postgraduate or professional program. Designed to provide graduating student-athletes the opportunity to continue their education, the program awards $70,000 in scholarship funding to former A-10 student-athletes. This marks the third straight year the Atlantic 10 has provided the scholarships to 14 individuals, and over the past six years, the A-10’s Postgraduate Scholarship program has awarded over $250,000 to 64 former student-athletes.

The selection process, which involves the league’s athletic directors, senior woman administrators and faculty athletic representatives, resulted in a class with an average GPA of 3.74. The class is comprised of 10 female student-athletes and four males, representing five different sports.

In each of the last four years, the average GPA of the honorees for the Postgraduate Scholarship Program has been 3.70 or higher. The program, which began honoring two student-athletes in 1991, has been so successful and well-received by both the recipients and the A-10 member institutions that it has expanded several times. The most recent expansion, which was adopted in January, 2015 and implemented that spring, now includes one representative from each A-10 school.

The Postgraduate Scholarship Program is part of the conference’s broad-based commitment to student-athlete opportunities and academics. The conference consistently ranks at the top amongst all Division I Conferences in both Graduation Success Rate (GSR) and the Academic Progress Rate (APR) data released by the NCAA.